With this kind of design, robots will have their battery capacity increased significantly. The design, called “biomorphic batteries”, was developed by scientists at the University of Michigan. It was inspired by how living beings like us humans store energy inside their bodies, which is through the fat reserves.
“Robot designs are restricted by the need for batteries that often occupy 20 percent or more of the available space inside a robot, or account for a similar proportion of the robot’s weight,” Nicholas Kotov, professor of engineering at the University of Michigan and lead researcher on the project, said in a statement.
According to the team, their new zinc battery could greatly increase energy density.
“We estimate that robots could have 72 times more power capacity if their exteriors were replaced with zinc batteries, compared to having a single lithium ion battery,” Mingqiang Wang, first author of a paper about the research published in the journal Science Robotics today, said in the statement.
They’re also more flexible in terms of where they can be mounted to a robot, and can serve multiple functions at once.
More details about this over at Futurism.
Awesome!
(Image Credit: University of Michigan Engineering/ YouTube)
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dang that thing is scary
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